Sunday, April 27, 2008

Mr and Mrs Reeves



Despite a forecast of possible rain-- the sun shined brightly for John and Debbie's wedding. While we didn't know any of the guests it was great fun to hang out and celebrate with family from near and far. While I can't say that I know Mikes extended family that well I have met them all over the years and yesterday it was fun to hang out with them for the day. They were great dinner companions and even better dance partners!
The highlight of the ceremony was probably Jackie's reading. It rang so true and I think the whole audience was nodding their heads in agreement as they wiped away the tears. It was nice to attend a ceremony that was personalized and not stuffy but showed the bride and grooms personality.
The reception was held at the Grand Atrium in Tyson's/Vienna--The food was great and it had a unique layout with dining upstairs overlooking the downstairs dancing and cocktail area. I must say I was surprised at the lack of dancing. Of course our family (to include the far away Jackson's) didn't miss a song on the dance floor. We all agreed that Christopher was indeed the perfect package... He's sweet, kind, always happy, awfully darn cute and HE DANCES. Some girl will be very lucky to land him... they just don't know it yet. Not sure why the other men in our lives won't dance...

Friday, April 25, 2008

Today

I have a puppy

Its Friday

Spring has arrived

Enough said

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Nashville


After a few days of sleep-- really good sleep I might add I think I am finally rested from my weekend away! With all my plane mishaps my scrapping buddy Heidi and I actually landed right around the same time in Nashville and met up in the luggage carosel area. Thats a nice start!!

It was an odd weekend. This is the first time we had attended this event (Scrap Etc) but we had attended CKU at the same location two other times. The Gaylord in TN is a huge (ok GIGANTIC) conference center and you can easily get lost and spend hours looking for where you are supposed to be, but like I said we were seasoned pro's and it didn't take us but a few hours to gain our bearings. As always it is a gorgous location, I can't think of a better place to spend a weekend if you are going to be a captive in a hotel.

While our classes were good, and some of the speakers were amazing I think the oddness was due to the fact that we were used to a more "professional" event. The event hostess I think tried but its a hard act to follow when the CK machine has these types of events down to a science. And in many cases her idea totally failed... the closing session was a disaster. 600 women in one room with a poor sound system and not enough table space to do anything.... but don't get me wrong these little things did not dampen our fun... as a matter of fact I think this event I got the least amount of sleep than any of the others before.... Seems we would loose track of time... giggling does that to you and before we would know it is was 2:30am and our alarm (excuse me wake up call) would confuse us at the early hour of 7am each morning.

I am glad we went-- I am grateful I went with Heidi-- we always have an amazing time and I can't wait to figure out where we will go next year... the pact has been made no more TN trips... we need to spread our wings and find a new location!




Monday, April 21, 2008

A journey through time and space

So I went away this past weekend to Tennessee. It took a total of 4 plane rides to go round trip. And before I go on, left me explain that each of these planes was filled to capacity, so any thought that Americans are slowing down on air travel due to rising gas prices... wrong. What else is wrong is how horrible flying can actually be. Case in point...my trip.



1) Flight number one- I booked this trip through travelocity, the flight was expensive compared to past flights (due to fuel prices I am sure) but doable. I was supposed to go from Richmond to Memphis to Nashville. When I arrived at the airport (following our post 9-11 directions) an hour early for my flight at the ungodly hour of 6:30am. I marched myself lugging my belongings behind me to the Northwest counter where I typed myself into the "Self checkout" computer. Of course it came up with the ever popular message- sorry please see the ticket agent. No problem at that hour of the morning there was no line. I gave them my name and was informed that I missed check in for my flight. Quizzically I looked at her and said "but my flight is at 7:30am and its now 6:30am and aren't I supposed to be here an hour early?" to which she responded "your flight is leaving the ground right now" I pulled out my on-line confirmation which clearly showed my 7:30am flight-- she was puzzled and announced there is no such flight number... to make a long story short I was rebooked on the next flight out, which happened to be a 7:30 am flight to Minneapolis Minnesota-- yea nothing like trying to go South to end up going north....

2) Flight 2-- no real issue other than I was in Minnesota.

3) Flight 3-- Coming home. We get to the airport early because we had to take a shuttle bus. And guess what--flight delayed 30 minutes... ahh no problem I have a 2 hour layover in Atlanta.

That is it was no problem until when they were getting ready to close the airplane door --they counted the passengers... seems we had 66 people aboard.... and we were only supposed to have 65. They recounted 3 times before they decided we should each tear our boarding pass in half and hand the nice stewardess lady the half with our name on it. The pilot did mention that since 9-11 it was kinda important to at all times know who was on the plane.... That statement sure quieted down the chit chat on the plane. yup 10 minutes later they figured it all out and off we went.

4) Flight 4- Atlanta was a busy busy airport.. Packed is a good description for it. Even with our delay I had plenty of time to make the 3 mile trek from Gate C to Gate A. I did decide to make a pit stop and get a Cinnabon Cinnamon bun and milk since no one feeds you on board anymore.

Once on board I discovered the nice clerk never gave me a fork... I am sure the guy sitting next to me was pleased to have the lady next to him eating the stickiest food ever with her fingers but you gotta do what you gotta do. Did I mention I also spilled my first sip of milk right down the front of me? Again I am the passenger everyone wants to sit next to.... (seriously don't you want to spend a few hours next to a sticky woman who smells of sour milk?) So they closed the doors and about 2 seconds later the pilot gets on the speaker and says...."folks it seems there was some debris on the runway (pause) and it was sucked up into our engine...." At that point I audibly laughed out loud-- sorry but with all the mishaps I had had up until that point I found it amusing.... he went on to say that he was waiting for the mechanics to find a place for us to go so that it could be checked out.....

A few minutes later the plane moved alittle... by then I had settled into reading my magazine. yes a magazine that I had lugged with me from Richmond to Minnesota to Nashville to Atlanta....and then awhile later he came back on telling us that all was fine and we just needed to wait for the head mechanic to bring the log book up to the plane for him to sign off on it... Apparently they have a window in the cockpit that they can pass the clipboard through.--- Smooth sailing from then on right???? yea well kinda... once on the ground it took about 20 minutes before any bags came off the luggage carousel... That's a really long time for an airport the size of Richmond... but I was closer to home than I started the day so all was good! Christopher was a good sport about having to wait for the delayed plane... and the rain was slowing down so my drive home wouldn't be too bad right????



HA! 2 hours from Richmond to home.... the longest trip ever....

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Richmond




So my weekend starts now! I made it safely to Richmond.. even found Christophers house all by myself. Next stop Nashville!!

Christopher might be at work but Furby and I -- we are living it up here in the 'hood.-- Seriously I think Furby is wondering what is going on... probably the first time she has ever seen a vacuum... even if it is a shop vac. Somewhere along the way I failed my son... while his home is very tidy-- its seriously in need of a mop.. which I come to learn he does not own... also I think someone forgot to tell him that thing on the top of the dryer is a lint holder.. (no worries I emptied it!)

The neighborhood is surprisingly quiet--and the frig does have food... what more could a girl want?? perhaps a cork screw??? yes he was kind enough to leave me a nice bottle of wine but alas nothing to open it with. I guess I know what I will be sending him home with on his next trip up north.
Well I have some last minute repacking to do--and somehow I have ruined my manicure.. so I gotta figure out what to do about that... I am thinking in this boy house there is probably no nail polish remover.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

brrrr

So the whole banishing winter thing might not have worked as well as I hoped. Saturday was gorgeous-- defiantly a flip flop day- we opened every window, sat on the deck and enjoyed the day.. This morning we woke to (windows still open) the heat running in high gear. Being ever the optimist I turned off the heat and threw on a bathrobe.. surely it would get warmer? Nope-- lets just say by 10am the heat was back on and the windows were firmly closed. Even Mike decided that the shorts he choose for the day needed to be turned in for sweat pants.

Amanda did her MS Walk yesterday-- usually this walk is riddled with rain.. but she got lucky this year- Which is good because her walking partner, Madison, does not care for wet feet. We are always so proud of the fundraising she does for MS.

I actually was feeling quite like an overachiever today as I started packing for my Nashville trip-- although I don't leave home until Wednesday night (A night in Richmond at Christopher's house) I thought I would use my time wisely today and at least get my gear in one pile.. one thing lead to another and before I knew it I was packing a suitcase. Don't know if I'll be changing my mind on the clothes choices between now and then but it does feel good to be "done".

Friday, April 11, 2008

serious case of spring fever

Its true, while Amanda is battling a case of senioritis, I have definitely come down with a serious case of spring fever... The weather has finally made a turn for the better and its been a tortuously long week.. weekend is not coming soon enough. I pledged last night that yesterday was the day of socks and closed shoes... its time for sandals and flip flops and defiantly time to break out the "happy purses". WINTER I BANISH YOU!

I know I am probably jumping the gun.. but a girls gotta take a stand somewhere. And I choose spring..

Tomorrow come rain or shine I gotta finish up the taxes.. write the check that will keep me out of jail for another year and be done with that nonsense.. and then hopefully I can play in the garden, take stock of my pond critters and think about packing for my well deserved Girls weekend in Nashville!

Sunday, April 06, 2008

Friends

This one was working on patience this weekend .... Madison came home for the weekend and brought her friends Cooper and Zoyie-- Needless to say the carpet cleaning that was on the list for the weekend didn't take place... But we did get cars washed.. did I mention it rained?


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Tuesday, April 01, 2008

taxes

Its more of the same.. hmmm... so exactly what is about taxes that brings out the demon in me? I have struggled for 2 months to figure out where I went wrong .... why oh why does uncle sam want my hard earned money so badly? I know exactly where the mistake is on my tax return but can't seem to figure out how to make the change...
Tonight I bite the bullet.. and for a small fee I took my COMPLETED tax returns into H&RBlock and let a professional explain cost basis and deprecation to me one more time.. I think I've got it now... but will it help??? don't know... at this very moment I am still stroking a check...Did Uncle Same not hear?? I gotta a wedding to pay for!

My son on the other hand keeps learning all about grown up life... the president gives you $600.00 and the tax man comes back and sends you a personal property notice for $450.00 so really what did you gain?? just another reason to invest in Asprin...

And if your looking for roses and sunshine.... finding the wedding chapel probably isn't the place to look... as I have mentioned before even god is in the business of making money... but we do have a few leads to follow up on. A scrapbooking buddy of mine Sue let me know her church might be worth checking out, and she even let me know about another church down the street from hers that definatley fits the denomination. I spent alittle time on the website of Sue's church.. and I must say if I lived closer to Alexandria I would be inclined to take a Sunday visit. I truely enjoyed reading the bio of her pastor, he definately sounds like someone you could relate to-- although in the back of my mind I can hear my mother telling me that he's not catholic... Ahh religion.. seems to me its the same God everyone prays to... the packaging is just alittle different. And in the end isn't it all about the package???